>Lots of people live on the East Cost, even though it's just a matter of time when the next mega tsunami from the Canary Islands hits the US and destroys everything that's up a few miles away from the coast. When the period in which a dangerous event will happen exceeds the life span of a human being, we have incredible problems taking this danger seriously. Hurricans occur yearly, tsunamis in the Indian Ocean every hundred years (you said there was one in 1883?), mega tsunamis on the East Coast every few hundred years.


Ok. So when the Canary Islands volcanoes explode, a warning should go to the people in coastal areas on this side of the Atlantic to move inland as we know there will be 2-3 hours till a tsunami hits. We will not know its size, but many people will heed the warning and will be spared. Of course here will always be a few idiots that will actually move closer to 'see it'.

My point is there was time for a warning in Sri Lanka and India, not so for Sumatra. AFAIK no warning was issued to the people.